Global Voices Advox

Zunar, renowned Malaysian cartoonist accused of sedition and now living under a travel ban, has announced he is suing his persecutors…and demanding the return of his books and t-shirts.

The ban is the result of a court petition to stop file-sharing websites from distributing pirated copies of recently released Bollywood movies.

The law was prepared discreetly and approved without holding discussions with civil society or internet service providers.

A Creative Commons leader who was active in projects like Firefox and Wikipedia, Bassel Khartabil played a pivotal role in extending online access in Syria. His wife, and the world, recently learned he was executed in 2015.

This July, protesters in Israel and Morocco were met with violence and journalists were subjected to harassment and denial of access, Lebanon banned protests, and 150 organisations met in Doha to discuss threats to freedom of expression in general, and the case of Al Jazeera in particular.

A government employee in Brunei was charged with violating the Sedition Act over a Facebook post criticising the Halal certification policy of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

After his death, not only was Liu’s name censored on social media platforms, even phrases containing the word “thunder” – a homophone for “tears” in Chinese – and the candle emoji were removed by censors.

Vietnamese activist Trần Thị Nga was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of house arrest for “conducting propaganda against the State.”